Vitality secure EPL playoff berth over OG

The majority-French squad was comfortably the better side overall, limiting OG to single-digit scores on both maps.

Vitality convincingly dispatched OG 2-0 to secure an ESL Pro League playoff spot, winning Anubis 16-5 and Vertigo 16-9. The best performer for Vitality was once again Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, who followed yesterday's 1.90 rated performance with a 1.71 rating against OG. Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug also showed an impressive individual level despite being away from tier-one competition since departing G2 in August of 2022, putting up a 1.15 rating.

Vitality have now qualified for the upper bracket final played on Sunday, where they await the winner of FaZe vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas. OG drop down to the lower bracket with the loss and are set to face off against paiN.

The first upper semi-final was a match between two teams that came into the event with stand-ins. Vitality are playing with JACKZ, who is filling in for Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen due to the Dane being on parental leave for at least the remainder of the group stage. On the other side of the server, OG have Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen replacing Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković and inheriting calling duties from the Serbian IGL.

ZywOo has shown imperious form at EPL so far

OG decided to start the series on Anubis, a punish pick against Vitality. Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and company played the map just once — an 11-16 loss against G2 at the BLAST World Finals in December. ZywOo got his team out of a sticky situation in the pistol round by winning a 1vs2 clutch, and his team made the most out of that as they raced to a 6-1 lead. JACKZ then uncharacteristically picked up a second AWP which proved to be a bad financial decision, with Vitality's economy suffering after a single round loss. That allowed OG to reduce the deficit, 4-6. The rest of the half was smooth sailing for the majority-French squad, who ended their defensive half 10-5 up.

ZywOo was once again the difference maker in the pistol as he found a triple with his P250 and put Vitality in pole position to close out the map. Substitute JACKZ came alive on the offense after a quiet first half with several entries and multi-kills to secure his team a flawless T side. Vitality won with a comfortable 16-5 scoreline, moving the series to their map pick of Vertigo.

OG won a second-round forcebuy courtesy of Maciej "⁠F1KU⁠" Miklas's Deagle triple-kill, giving them an early 3-1 lead. That was about as good as it got for the European combine due to Vitality wasting no time in tying up the scores at 3-3, and running away to a 9-4 lead. All of the individuals were on point for the apEX-led team and OG got no rest bite in the first half. Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov killed four with a well-timed flank with an AWP to stop the rot and OG were able to make a recovery near the end of the half, 6-9. The Russian AWPer had a wonderful half with 19 kills — seven more than any of his teammates.

The second half was a scrappy affair but Vitality kept the lead throughout, something that was helped by the fact they won a round with unarmored pistols at 12-8. That round proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the nexa-less OG, as they were unable to get back into the game and eventually fell 9-16 and were relegated to the lower bracket, while Vitality booked their place in the EPL playoffs.

ESL Pro League Season 17Best of 3

Vitality

Matchpage

2

0

9th March 2023

OG

16

Anubis

5

16

Vertigo

9

Vitality	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautZywOo	44 - 16	+28	90.1	91.3%	1.71
Lotan 'Spinx' GiladiSpinx	34 - 28	+6	80.6	82.6%	1.23
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	36 - 27	+9	82.1	67.4%	1.21
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	28 - 23	+5	78.0	87.0%	1.16
Audric 'JACKZ' JugJACKZ	33 - 29	+4	81.3	67.4%	1.15

OG	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Abdul 'degster' Gasanovdegster	33 - 34	-1	72.9	60.9%	1.03
Maciej 'F1KU' MiklasF1KU	24 - 34	-10	75.8	58.7%	0.82
Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensenniko	22 - 32	-10	48.9	63.0%	0.71
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanflameZ	21 - 38	-17	61.0	58.7%	0.64
Adam 'NEOFRAG' ZouharNEOFRAG	22 - 37	-15	58.5	45.7%	0.61